The Unstuck Nickel
A Tuesday night shift goes sideways when a customer tries to pay with a coin that hasn't been minted yet, and the fabric of the Slush-o-Matic machine starts to fray at the seams of reality.
# The Unstuck Nickel
**Format:** Short Film / Anthology Episode | **Est. Length:** 10-12 minutes
## Logline
A jaded convenience store clerk's monotonous night shift is shattered when a desperate time traveler tries to pay with a reality-bending coin, forcing the clerk to confront a localized temporal collapse that threatens to erase his store from existence.
## Themes
* **The Intrusion of the Extraordinary:** The violent collision of a mundane, predictable world with the incomprehensible rules of a high-concept future.
* **Apathy vs. Agency:** The journey of a man so bored with his reality that he's become a passive observer, who is then forced to take decisive action when that reality begins to unravel.
* **The Fragility of Reality:** An exploration of how easily our perceived world can be bent, broken, or even erased by forces beyond our understanding.
## Stakes
The immediate collapse of a small pocket of reality threatens to annihilate the convenience store and everyone inside it.
## Synopsis
LEO, a world-weary clerk, is enduring another soul-crushing late shift at his 24-hour convenience store. His routine is interrupted by the arrival of a frantic, strangely dressed man—THE TRAVELLER—who wants to buy a carton of expired milk. The interaction shifts from odd to alarming when the Traveller tries to pay with a nickel that seems to hold liquid light and bears the face of an older, sterner Queen.
Leo dismisses the coin, demanding proper payment. At that moment, the store plunges into chaos. The lights flicker violently, a vintage Slush-o-Matic machine whirs to life with impossible speed, and the very air crackles with energy. The terrified Traveller explains that the coin is a "temporal anchor" from the future, its presence causing a "paradox" that is attracting a hostile force and collapsing their shared reality.
As the Slush-o-Matic begins to glow and melt, and objects start to levitate, Leo moves past his disbelief. Having seen every kind of late-night weirdness, he treats this existential threat as just another problem to be solved. He grabs the glowing nickel. The touch floods his mind with visions of a gleaming future city in the year 2077. This action seemingly grounds the anomaly; the Slush-o-Matic dissolves into a harmless puddle, and the chaos subsides.
Seeing the Traveller as a scared man, not a threat, Leo feels an uncharacteristic flicker of empathy. He directs the man to the back exit, telling him to run. After the Traveller flees, Leo is left in the quiet shop, holding the now-inert coin. He then discovers the price of his intervention: the front entrance of the store no longer exists, replaced by a shimmering, heat-haze distortion that silently erases anything that touches it. Realizing he is now the keeper of a wound in reality, Leo pockets the coin and calls his manager to report a very unusual problem.
## Character Breakdown
* **LEO (40s):** Jaded, cynical, and profoundly bored. Leo has worked the night shift for too long, seeing humanity at its strangest and becoming desensitized to it all. He operates on a low-frequency hum of weary sarcasm and procedural compliance. His uniform is a second skin, the store his uninteresting kingdom.
* **Psychological Arc:** Leo begins as a detached, passive observer of his own life, treating even the most bizarre events with a grumbling sense of obligation. By the end, he is forced into the role of an active participant, making a choice driven by a nascent empathy. He ends the story awakened, no longer just a clerk but the unwitting guardian of a cosmic anomaly, his mundane world permanently fractured.
* **THE TRAVELLER (Ageless, looks 50s):** A man out of time and out of luck. Dressed in a strange mix of fabrics and styles, his defining feature is his wide, terrified eyes. He is a mouse cornered by a hawk that no one else can see. His movements are jerky, his speech is clipped and laced with futuristic jargon he has no time to explain. He is not a villain, but a desperate refugee.
## Scene Beats
1. **THE MUNDANE:** Leo works his shift, a picture of weary boredom. The Traveller enters, a jarring note of strangeness. He grabs expired milk.
2. **THE ANCHOR:** At the counter, the Traveller offers the "un-stuck" nickel. It looks alien. Leo rejects it, demanding real money.
3. **THE COLLAPSE:** The lights strobe violently. The Slush-o-Matic screams to life, its colors bleeding as it glows with an unnatural purple light. The Traveller panics, screaming about a "paradox."
4. **THE ESCALATION:** The Traveller scrambles over the counter, hiding. He explains the coin is a "temporal anchor" pulling something dangerous closer. A tape dispenser levitates.
5. **THE CHOICE:** Deciding this is just another mess to clean up, Leo grabs the glowing nickel. He's hit with a flash-forward vision of the year 2077.
6. **THE RESOLUTION:** The Slush-o-Matic dissolves into a puddle. The chaos stops. The immediate threat is neutralized.
7. **THE ESCAPE:** Leo, now possessing a deeper understanding, shows the Traveller the back door. He lets him go, citing the three-thousand-dollar machine as a "down payment."
8. **THE SCAR:** Alone, Leo discovers the consequence: the front of the shop has been erased, replaced by a shimmering wall of non-reality. He pockets the coin and makes a phone call he doesn't know how to begin.
## Visual Style & Tone
The visual style will be one of stark contrast. The film opens with the **grimy realism** of a forgotten convenience store: buzzing fluorescent lights casting a sickly yellow-green pallor, worn linoleum floors, and the faded packaging of junk food. This mundane setting will be aggressively invaded by **high-concept sci-fi visuals**. The nickel will not just shine but contain a swirling, galactic light. The Slush-o-Matic's meltdown will be a terrifying spectacle of warping plastic and vibrant, glowing purple energy. The final shot of the "erased" reality should be a subtle but deeply unsettling shimmering distortion, like a digital glitch in the physical world.
The tone is a slow-burn, grounded thriller that escalates into mind-bending sci-fi horror. The story's deadpan, pragmatic protagonist keeps the narrative from becoming overwrought, creating a unique blend of the cosmic and the commonplace. Tonally, it aligns with episodes of **_Black Mirror_** or **_The Twilight Zone_**, with the grounded, character-focused weirdness of **_Tales from the Loop_**.
**Format:** Short Film / Anthology Episode | **Est. Length:** 10-12 minutes
## Logline
A jaded convenience store clerk's monotonous night shift is shattered when a desperate time traveler tries to pay with a reality-bending coin, forcing the clerk to confront a localized temporal collapse that threatens to erase his store from existence.
## Themes
* **The Intrusion of the Extraordinary:** The violent collision of a mundane, predictable world with the incomprehensible rules of a high-concept future.
* **Apathy vs. Agency:** The journey of a man so bored with his reality that he's become a passive observer, who is then forced to take decisive action when that reality begins to unravel.
* **The Fragility of Reality:** An exploration of how easily our perceived world can be bent, broken, or even erased by forces beyond our understanding.
## Stakes
The immediate collapse of a small pocket of reality threatens to annihilate the convenience store and everyone inside it.
## Synopsis
LEO, a world-weary clerk, is enduring another soul-crushing late shift at his 24-hour convenience store. His routine is interrupted by the arrival of a frantic, strangely dressed man—THE TRAVELLER—who wants to buy a carton of expired milk. The interaction shifts from odd to alarming when the Traveller tries to pay with a nickel that seems to hold liquid light and bears the face of an older, sterner Queen.
Leo dismisses the coin, demanding proper payment. At that moment, the store plunges into chaos. The lights flicker violently, a vintage Slush-o-Matic machine whirs to life with impossible speed, and the very air crackles with energy. The terrified Traveller explains that the coin is a "temporal anchor" from the future, its presence causing a "paradox" that is attracting a hostile force and collapsing their shared reality.
As the Slush-o-Matic begins to glow and melt, and objects start to levitate, Leo moves past his disbelief. Having seen every kind of late-night weirdness, he treats this existential threat as just another problem to be solved. He grabs the glowing nickel. The touch floods his mind with visions of a gleaming future city in the year 2077. This action seemingly grounds the anomaly; the Slush-o-Matic dissolves into a harmless puddle, and the chaos subsides.
Seeing the Traveller as a scared man, not a threat, Leo feels an uncharacteristic flicker of empathy. He directs the man to the back exit, telling him to run. After the Traveller flees, Leo is left in the quiet shop, holding the now-inert coin. He then discovers the price of his intervention: the front entrance of the store no longer exists, replaced by a shimmering, heat-haze distortion that silently erases anything that touches it. Realizing he is now the keeper of a wound in reality, Leo pockets the coin and calls his manager to report a very unusual problem.
## Character Breakdown
* **LEO (40s):** Jaded, cynical, and profoundly bored. Leo has worked the night shift for too long, seeing humanity at its strangest and becoming desensitized to it all. He operates on a low-frequency hum of weary sarcasm and procedural compliance. His uniform is a second skin, the store his uninteresting kingdom.
* **Psychological Arc:** Leo begins as a detached, passive observer of his own life, treating even the most bizarre events with a grumbling sense of obligation. By the end, he is forced into the role of an active participant, making a choice driven by a nascent empathy. He ends the story awakened, no longer just a clerk but the unwitting guardian of a cosmic anomaly, his mundane world permanently fractured.
* **THE TRAVELLER (Ageless, looks 50s):** A man out of time and out of luck. Dressed in a strange mix of fabrics and styles, his defining feature is his wide, terrified eyes. He is a mouse cornered by a hawk that no one else can see. His movements are jerky, his speech is clipped and laced with futuristic jargon he has no time to explain. He is not a villain, but a desperate refugee.
## Scene Beats
1. **THE MUNDANE:** Leo works his shift, a picture of weary boredom. The Traveller enters, a jarring note of strangeness. He grabs expired milk.
2. **THE ANCHOR:** At the counter, the Traveller offers the "un-stuck" nickel. It looks alien. Leo rejects it, demanding real money.
3. **THE COLLAPSE:** The lights strobe violently. The Slush-o-Matic screams to life, its colors bleeding as it glows with an unnatural purple light. The Traveller panics, screaming about a "paradox."
4. **THE ESCALATION:** The Traveller scrambles over the counter, hiding. He explains the coin is a "temporal anchor" pulling something dangerous closer. A tape dispenser levitates.
5. **THE CHOICE:** Deciding this is just another mess to clean up, Leo grabs the glowing nickel. He's hit with a flash-forward vision of the year 2077.
6. **THE RESOLUTION:** The Slush-o-Matic dissolves into a puddle. The chaos stops. The immediate threat is neutralized.
7. **THE ESCAPE:** Leo, now possessing a deeper understanding, shows the Traveller the back door. He lets him go, citing the three-thousand-dollar machine as a "down payment."
8. **THE SCAR:** Alone, Leo discovers the consequence: the front of the shop has been erased, replaced by a shimmering wall of non-reality. He pockets the coin and makes a phone call he doesn't know how to begin.
## Visual Style & Tone
The visual style will be one of stark contrast. The film opens with the **grimy realism** of a forgotten convenience store: buzzing fluorescent lights casting a sickly yellow-green pallor, worn linoleum floors, and the faded packaging of junk food. This mundane setting will be aggressively invaded by **high-concept sci-fi visuals**. The nickel will not just shine but contain a swirling, galactic light. The Slush-o-Matic's meltdown will be a terrifying spectacle of warping plastic and vibrant, glowing purple energy. The final shot of the "erased" reality should be a subtle but deeply unsettling shimmering distortion, like a digital glitch in the physical world.
The tone is a slow-burn, grounded thriller that escalates into mind-bending sci-fi horror. The story's deadpan, pragmatic protagonist keeps the narrative from becoming overwrought, creating a unique blend of the cosmic and the commonplace. Tonally, it aligns with episodes of **_Black Mirror_** or **_The Twilight Zone_**, with the grounded, character-focused weirdness of **_Tales from the Loop_**.